


A New Ending

by Lizzie_Matt



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Ending, F/F, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:08:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25638559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lizzie_Matt/pseuds/Lizzie_Matt
Summary: An alternate end to the season one finale where Emma and Regina take on Maleficent together and then get stuck in the elevator on the way out.
Relationships: Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Emma Swan, Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Maleficent
Comments: 5
Kudos: 30





	A New Ending

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first attempt to write anything more interesting than a chemical report so it's quite short. It was meant to be a classic stuck in an elevator fic but then I got distracted and ended up rewriting the ending to series one.

“Well now what?” demanded Regina, hitting the elevator button several more times, “Why aren’t these doors opening?”

“Don’t tell me you have _one_ elevator in Storybrooke and it doesn’t work properly?” replied Emma.

When Mr. Gold had informed the women that the only way to save their son was to procure a potion of true love, they had immediately agreed to find the missing piece, located within a fiercely guarded dragon’s egg.

Regina had known as soon as Gold mentioned the library basement what she would be facing down there. Who she would be facing down there. But Henry’s life was at stake and he was far more important than any history she had with Maleficent, no matter how important she had once been to her.

Regina would much rather not have faced her right now with everything else she had going on, but she couldn’t trust the saviour to take on someone so powerful and not mess up. Besides, she’d thought that slaying the dragon would bring her some much needed closure.

To Emma, the idea that today she would be slaying a dragon with the woman who had poisoned her son hadn’t even ranked on her list of things to freak out over later. But like Regina, she knew her son was the most important thing right now and everything else would just have to wait.

“This is ridiculous! My son is asleep up there, waiting for us to break this curse. We’ve managed to fight off a dragon for him but now we are to be defeated by a faulty elevator?” cried the queen. “For goodness’ sake Miss Swan, use your cell phone and call someone to come get us!”

“Our son,” Emma reminded her, “and besides, shouldn’t maintaining the infrastructure around here be _your_ job, Madame Mayor?”

“Miss Swan, I suggest you leave your complaints about my work until after we’ve rescued Henry. Now, are you going to call Mary Margaret, or shall I take your cell and do it myself?”

“No good,” said Emma, “my cell’s dead, it won’t be calling anyone. Where’s yours, Regina, surely you can call someone?”

“I didn’t bring mine; I didn’t think it would be of much use in retrieving a dragon’s egg,” grumbled Regina, “I guess we’ll just have to wait down here until someone comes looking for us. Gold knows we’re down here, and Henry should be fine under the sleeping curse for a little while longer.”

“How do you know he’ll be okay?” asked Emma, “what if he has a bad reaction to it or something?”

“One doesn’t have a ‘bad reaction’ to a sleeping curse, Miss Swan, it doesn’t contain allergens. Besides, it was my curse, so I should know,” said Regina, sitting down and resigning herself to waiting for rescue.

“Yes, let’s talk about how you put a CURSE on my son!” cried Emma, the stress of finding out all that she had today and the realisation that the woman who had adopted her son was an evil tyrant finally getting to her.

“How could you do that to Henry? You claim to love him but somehow you manage to end up cursing him?”

“Miss Swan, I am all too aware of the state Henry is currently in. If it’s any consolation, the sleeping curse was meant for you, not him.” Regina reminded the blonde woman. “I _do_ love Henry, don’t you see? That’s why I needed you out of the way.”

Emma was so frustrated and upset she wanted to grab the mayor and shake her, but she contented herself with kicking the elevator wall and sitting down next to her.

“So…” she asked, “you want to explain what a dragon is doing in the basement of Storybrooke’s library?”

“Not really,” sighed Regina, somewhat defeated, “she was an old… friend. However, like many of my old friends, she also happened to hate me.”

“Well you sure do have a way with people, Madame Mayor,” replied Emma, sarcastically. “But why bother to bring it to Storybrooke at all if you’re just going to shut it up in the basement? A bit mad-wife-in-the-attic isn’t it?”

“Miss Swan, I’ve said I don’t wish to talk about it and you’ve already clearly demonstrated that you don’t understand the first thing about curses. Now the real question is, are we just going to sit here arguing until only one of us is left alive in this tin box, or shall we try to tolerate each other for Henry’s sake?” asked the queen.

“You’re right,” said Emma, with resignation, leaning back against the elevator wall, “so, I think we should discuss what to do about Henry once we wake him from this magical sleep you put him in-”

“Miss Swan, I-”

“No, Regina, you listen! I know you love him, hell, you’ve just slain a dragon for him! A dragon you apparently know, but that’s too weird to not skip over right now. I’ve been given a second chance with my son. A second chance I would never have thought possible. A few weeks and Henry is already the best thing I could ask for in life. I think you deserve that second chance too.”

Regina looked up. She felt tears come to her eyes but she would not let them spill over in front of this woman. This woman whom she had thought wanted to take her son away from her forever.

“Are you serious? You don’t want to leave with Henry? To take him away?”

“Don’t get me wrong, Regina, he’s coming to live with me. But I don’t see why you shouldn’t see him. He loves you. He’s just forgotten that for the moment, but he’ll remember.”

Regina felt the brief joy that had overwhelmed her at the thought she wouldn’t lose her son quickly leaving her as it was replaced by bitterness and resentment. The only reason Henry had stopped loving her was Emma. And the only reason Emma was here was because of Snow White who’d turned her into the villain she was today…

“Are you okay there, Regina?” asked Emma, placing her hand gently on the other woman’s knee, “you looked for a second like you were going to fireball me!”

Of course Regina had considered it, but she managed to compose herself. She realised that the best way to get Henry back would not be to incinerate his birth mom but rather to make peace with her. After all, she’d come down here to get Henry back, and she certainly wasn’t leaving until she’d done that. And if showing mercy to the woman who could break her curse was the way to do that then so be it. She was a different person now to the one who had cast that curse all those years ago. Henry had changed her, apparently for the better. 

“I’m fine, Miss Swan,” she said, after a few seconds, “I’m just… grateful. Really.”

“You’re welcome, Madame Mayor,” Emma said, pleased that the biggest obstacle to hers and Henry’s happy life was seemingly seeing sense. “Henry can move in with me and Mary Margaret and you can come over whenever you want. Just no poisoned apples this time!”

“No, of course not” Regina replied, “and if there’s ever anything else I can do for him, you must let me know. Now, for breakfast he likes-”

“Whoa there, Madame Mayor, we can discuss dietary requirements later. I’m not sure about Henry, but I’m sure there would be plenty a woman like you could do for me…” Emma suggested, smirking.

“Miss Swan, are you flirting with me?” asked Regina, glancing down at Emma’s hand which was still, for some reason, resting on her leg.

“Well, what else are we going to do down here?” asked Emma, laughing at Regina’s shocked face, “you’re an attractive woman and the mother of my child. We just fought off a fire breathing dragon together… you can’t deny we’d make sense.”

“You make some compelling arguments, Miss Swan,” replied Regina, smiling, “but I don’t have time to hear about just how attractive you think I am right now. Henry needs us.”

“I know, Regina, but there’s nothing we can do about that right now…”

“I’ll send someone back for you,” Regina reassured Emma.

And with that she poofed out of the elevator with the egg.


End file.
